This week, Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine said efforts to ease overcrowding at Reagan National and make Dulles more competitive for domestic flights will help regional airports like Roanoke.

Brad Boettcher is the Director of Marketing at Roanoke Blacksburg Regional Airport.

"Where we go down to one flight a day during the winter time, and then in the spring time we go up to two, and in the summer we have three flights a day to Dulles,: Boettcher told WDBJ7, "we're hopeful that we will have at least three flights a day year round."

Boettcher says he believes that eventually United would like to have four flights a day between Roanoke and Dulles.

Following is the text of the news release from Senators Warner and Kaine:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced that there will be an additional daily roundtrip flight between Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA) and Washington’s Dulles International Airport (IAD).

“We are excited to announce this additional flight from Dulles to Roanoke,” said the Senators. “This new roundtrip flight will give travelers more options to connect between Roanoke and Northern Virginia – as well as connections to the global destinations that Dulles serves. This is great news for Virginians and for the economy. We are also proud that our efforts to ease overcrowding at Reagan National Airport and make Dulles more competitive for domestic flights are having the effect we intended – benefitting both Northern Virginia airports and smaller regional destinations like Roanoke.”

During last year’s reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, Warner and Kaine led efforts to combat policies detrimental to Dulles Airport, one of Virginia’s two global ports of entry.

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